Official art of Guilherme and Marcicia's glamour dust, from 4.3 Bonus: Packing Up.
Glamour is a Faerie magic that work as an illusion-made so real that reality itself is fooled. Glamour can be used innately by the Fae and their relatives, or by humans who have taken or been given it.
Uses[]
Can be used to bring an idea into reality. Almost any effect is possible for as long as the illusion holds, from creating a Magic Item[1] to achieving - or taking away - immortality.[2] Glamour feeds on attention and subconscious acceptance, and the more it is treated as real, the more real it becomes.[3][4][5]
Glamour has a semi-sapient nature, picking up on intentions and finishing what the user is trying to do once it "realizes".[6][7] It will more readily take on forms and apply itself to spells that promise it a source of power.[8]
Glamour is considered ideal for Shapeshifting, as you can change your form using nothing but glamour so well that even the Connections are disguised.[9]
In addition to this direct usage, glamour can also serve as a Power Source for other Practices.[9][10]
Weaknesses[]
Glamour's power is expended and it wears away whenever the glamour is challenged - when people notice or call attention to the flaws. If it breaks entirely, reality will reassert itself violently.[9] A degree of faith or self-delusion is key to using glamour.[11] It has an inherent fragility to it, and if the lie is challenged directly in word or deed, it's liable to break.[12][13] Even emotional shocks can damage glamour[14].[15] Glamour is strongest when given something solid to serve as a backbone; for this reason, scraps of Other materials are often used by the Fae in their workings,[16] or physical materials such as moss or cobweb.[17]
Like most forms of magic, the workings of Karma mean that attempting to gain more than you have rightfully earned through glamour risks backlash equal to whatever you gained.[18] Some creatures, such as Brownies, deliberately exploit this by giving their labor "freely" to build up a karmic price which they can extract when the terms of the bargain are broken, the weight of karma lending them strength in exacting it.[19][20] Even inanimate glamours will eagerly take on forms that can lead to karmic backlash and further empower them.[8]
Imbibing glamour can give the Faerie whose glamour it is power over you,[21] and using it on an object can give the Faerie claim over that object.[22]
Glamour feeds on subconscious acceptance, and strives to become unnoticed, which often entails slipping free of the user.[4] It's possible to decieve reality and yourself too well and lose track of your true identity. To avoid this, glamour users will often leave a deliberate "tell" in their assumed shape to remind themselves of their real identity - although others can catch on to the tell as well.[9]
Sources[]
Glamour is so fragile and personal that it cannot generally be taken by force without breaking it, although it might be taken fairly in a duel.[23] A faerie may freely give their personal glamour in the form of a powder which falls from them like dust, with an appearance and texture peculiar to the individual.[24][25] Fae also make use of this dust form of their glamour themselves when they need to apply it.[26]
However it is obtained Glamour takes strengths and weaknesses from Court that fae originates from,[5][27] and even the specific item or body part they infused it into. Using it for something that goes against this nature will be weaker, and even risks backfiring.[28][29] Winter Court glamour is more intense than most, a permanent delusional madness, and it's effects tend to be permanent and irrevocable even if one would not wish it.[30]
Items that have been made from, or infused with, glamour can also be a source of glamour, whether freely given or taken.[31] Faerie bodies themselves are deeply infused with glamour, and so their body parts can serve as a source of it.[31][21] In order to then reuse the glamour in it's raw form, the item might be ground up and make into an ink,[10] ground up and used as powder,[32][33] or consumed.[21]
Working with glamour may leave leftover glamour on the target or environs which can still be used.[34][35]
Goblin Gunk[]
Pioneered by Sir Turdswallow,[36]
References[]
- ↑ Some Faerie give tokens to their favored humans and practitioners. Little objects, trinkets, scraps of cloth. Objects infused with glamour. These objects carry a kind of charge, an influence. A coin infused with a glamour that it’s lucky. An earring that’s infused with another sort of glamour, granting an ability. [...] In the old stories, there are tales of people given gifts, to use at certain times. Throw this hairbrush down, and it becomes a forest of trees. Throw this ribbon down, and it becomes a river. One big glamour, expending an item. [...] A woman gets the favor of a family of brownies, provided she rubs ointment on the brownie child’s eyes once a night. She’s warned she should never use it on herself, but she does, and she gains the ability to see the brownies as they go about their business in the city. She is discovered, and as punishment, they strike her blind. - excerpt from Damages 2.6
- ↑ "Dress it up in the glamour of possible true death, using a rapier can kill even Faerie." [...] “And it would make just as much sense if you made the fucking stupid mistake of using that glamour trick of yours to convince reality you can’t die. Look young, be young. Look like you can’t get sick, you can’t get sick.”
Look like no weapon forged by man can kill you, no weapon forged by man can kill you. - excerpt from Damages 2.5 - ↑ The things they conjure up are there. They’re fabricated, and it’s this affinity for things that have been crafted that helps the Faerie avoid being touched so easily by fabricated things. With glamour, the Faerie might create an image of a flower. It’s an image. But as they put power into it, it gains substance. As people see it and recognize it, they feed power into it. Plant that flower in a garden, leave it be, and it will grow as any flower might. It becomes a part of the garden, and the garden adapts. It adapts to the viewers, becoming what they want and expect to see. A two way street. Given opportunity, it becomes as much of a part of things as if it was always there. [...] Glamour thrives on attention, on interacting with our senses and being validated. [...] A glamour is most effective if it can insinuate itself into your subconscious. The Faerie manipulate things to distract, to addle your senses so you aren’t paying attention to the fact that it doesn’t fit with reality. You’re more afraid for your life than you are concerned with the ridiculous length of her blade, and the fact that she couldn’t possibly be strong enough to hold it. - excerpt from Damages 2.5
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Give it your attention, make it a part of your routine, and it will gradually get stronger. Be careful, however, that you don’t get used to it. Glamour is innately elusive, subtle, and misleading, images striving to slip from the conscious attention to the unconscious attention. There is a reason we don’t have troves of these infused objects lying about. In the majority of cases, they become a part of the scenery and routine, they lose importance, and they seize on that to become unimportant. The fortunate coin is unfortunately lost, you see. - excerpt from Damages 2.6
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 “Was there a problem downtown?” Charles asked.
“No,” Maricica said. “They smell like Glamour and sunlight. Did you use my glamour for something related to sun?”
“Ahhh,” Verona said.
“I’m a Faerie of the court below. Rain, darkness, cold water…”
“Got it, got it. Also, ow.”
“It will pass. Try not to pay attention to it,” Maricica said. “Or the glamour that still dusts you will take that attention and use it to make the harm more lasting.” - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.7 - ↑ She drew out fur, color, narrowed parts of her body…
She got about two-thirds of the way done before the glamour seemed to realize her desired end result. The form snapped around her, she dropped to all fours, and the weight of her bag at her back slipped away into hackles and dense fur. - excerpt from Shaking Hands 9.4 - ↑ Glamour tends to reach forward, right? It finishes what you start. [...] Keep yourself in the light, so the glamour knows what it’s copying… - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.7
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 It drinks the bitterness that follows. That’s why the glamour stirs so readily into that prepared little charm, don’t you see? It waits for the chance to create a situation like this, just like the Brownies and their warning not to give thanks. - excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.6
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 “Yes, you can use it to power the shaping, but you shouldn’t.”
“Why not?” I asked, momentarily concerned.
“If you want to change your form, using the glamour itself is enough. More flexible. More fragile, but I don’t see you fighting each and every member of Laird’s family, and if you’re in a position to have a glamour broken, you’re also in a position to have your shape stolen from you, leaving you in your ordinary form, helpless and naked. I would use glamour by itself, in your shoes. [...] Use all you can. Layer it on thick. Render it into a form you can handle, dilute it, powder or paint yourself with it, mold yourself, and avoid letting that mold break. It’ll wear over time, as it’s challenged. Every doubt is a crack, and you can repair the cracks with power. Good illusionists can wear the same glamour for years, if they attach it to some power source. Some never change their clothes, only changing the glamour.”
[...]
“I want to ask a question, before I answer that. What are the limitations?”
“There are few. My teacher told me many Faerie take refuge in audacity. Keep the rules of the change simple, without too many twists and turns, and you can paint any sort of picture. Your power and the glamour’s power is only truly expended if the glamour breaks. Cracks, frays, fades, peels, or breaks entirely. You’re deceiving reality, and reality can only make you pay for the sheer difference in forms when it finds out.”
“Okay,” I said. “That sounds far more workable. Can someone look at the connections, break it that way?”
“Not if you’re careful to mold those as well.”
“Okay. Opposite question, then. What if I deceive reality too well?”
“You don’t. You leave a tell. A key, if you will. Something deliberately wrong, often something that calls back to you, specifically. Anyone who notices it will see through the glamour, but you can notice it to do the same.”
“Like?”
“Eyes the wrong color, or you’re flipped left to right, like an image in a mirror, or you keep an old scar.” - Excerpt from Breach 3.2 - ↑ 10.0 10.1 I doubted it was as powerful as blood, but still, I used a small swiss army knife to snip the hair free, cut it up, and then put it into the small iron pot. I grabbed some snow and squeezed it until the warmth and friction produced water, and ground up the moist hair with the mortar and pestle.
Some powdered herbs joined the mixture, and I crushed it up until I had a thin black-brown liquid.
I reached beyond the confines of the circle I’d created and I wiped away a section of the line I’d made. I drew out a circle with the hair-ink, then placed the paper with Leonard’s history within the circle. [...] I could see the spirits running along the ink I’d drawn out. [...] The hair was my go-to power source for the moment, so I didn’t have to use my blood, but I’d splashed some when using the mortar and pestle. - excerpt from Breach 3.1 - ↑ I ran my hand along my arm, so the skin that stretched between thumb and index finger dragged along the surface.
I willed it to change.
The effect was minimal at best.
What had Ms. Lewis told me about the Faerie?
Self delusion.
I did it again. This time, I relaxed and let myself believe it would change. A leap of faith. I visualized my hand peeling away the paler skin, revealing my normal skin tone beneath.
It was eerie, seeing it take hold. My tattoos as they’d been before, less beautiful, but still gorgeous and entirely mine. - Excerpt from Breach 3.2 - ↑ But there is a fragility to it. An idea is an idea, after all, and if you dismiss it or if you challenge the lie and win, then it is liable to fall apart. [...] As your partner Rose already said, they’re weak against the unrefined, against crude things. That includes attitudes. Their court is one of dancing around subjects, allusions, games, masquerades, and complex plots that unfold over decades and centuries. They shore themselves and their reality up with glamour, and they use these illusions-made reality to fool even themselves. It catches them off guard when you are blunt. It offends them on a fundamental level, because they thrive off of belief, real or otherwise, and they don’t like for those beliefs to be challenged. - excerpt from Damages 2.5
- ↑ “How do you break a glamour?” Avery asked. “You said it could be done delet-”
“Deleteriously.”
“Yeah. How would I deal with it if someone did it to me?”
“A complex question, depending on-”
“Brute force,” Guilherme cut in. “Typical glamour is fragile.”
“Oh,” Lucy said.
Avery jumped as Lucy tossed Verona out of her arms.
The creature flipped end over end, and then hit the ground, sprawling. In the hidden movements and shifts of dust from the awkward collision with the floor, masked by the tricks darkness played on the eyes, the weasel became human Verona again.
“Ow! Geez! My tailbone!” - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.3 - ↑ Pamela leaned in, and Avery stopped talking, pausing to wrestle with herself.
The glamour broke across her chest, like a crack spreading across ice, starting at the heart. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.3 - ↑ He clubbed at her with a makeshift cudgel, and the armor glamour broke away. Through his sleeve, she bit at his forearm, crunching down until something gave. The shock of it made more of the glamour peel away. - excerpt from Playing a Part 15.10
- ↑ “I dinnae have names for where I go. I just go,” Alpeana said. “Maricica comes, now and then.”
“I need materials sometimes,” Maricica said. “Glamour is strongest when you build on a solid backbone. There are places you can go that are more Other than human. Many are hazardous. The ruins, the abyss, the warrens- detestable.”
“Goblin infested,” Guilherme noted, speaking up for the first bit in a while.
“The paths, the spirit world. The Faerie courts, of course. There are other Other places.” - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.3 - ↑ I understand it happened, I was a short flight from here, on the west bank of the river, collecting spiderwebs and mosses for a structured glamour. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2
- ↑ “You said everything has a cost,” I said. “What’s the cost, here?”
“A very good question,” Ms. Lewis said. “Tell me, how does it go in the stories? A woman gets the favor of a family of brownies, provided she rubs ointment on the brownie child’s eyes once a night. She’s warned she should never use it on herself, but she does, and she gains the ability to see the brownies as they go about their business in the city. She is discovered, and as punishment, they strike her blind.”
“Ironic punishment,’ Rose said. “Karma.”
“The universe seeks balance, and it can be heavy handed. You might earn the earring that gives you an uncanny ability to listen, and this is tolerable, because you earned it. But when the earring is lost, balance is restored, and-”
“You might go deaf,” I said. “Or you could lose the ability to hear kind words, or you could get the ears of an ass and your ass-ears can’t understand everyone’s mocking whisperings behind your back. I think I get the drift.”
“You do. Think of what you’re willing to lose before you turn that lock of hair to a purpose. Should you misuse it or treat this little thing of power poorly, you’ll pay a price equal to what you gained. But for the time being, I recommend you take time for it.” - excerpt from Damages 2.6 - ↑ She couldn’t express gratitude, or the brownies would turn on her. With the one-sided arrangement, a karmic debt was accrued, but there were always rules. The faerie-adjacent brownies might strike a deal, like never ever watching them work. When a hapless, curious individual finally did, they would be blinded. The more the debt, the worse the fate.
The last incident with the kitchen brownies had been six years ago. Just over two thousand days and nights of breakfasts and dinners provided without a disruption of the arrangement. At this point, the person who crossed the brownies would probably not be allowed to die, as the karmic debt came to roost. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z - ↑ Gone Ahead 7.7
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 He adjusted his grip, no longer holding the hook properly, and instead held her hand that held the hook. He leaned in, and her wings intervened, patterns peeling away and swaying like cobras before the bite.
And he didn’t care. He bit into her arm, fended off the first cobras, and savaged her.
“Stop!” Lucy shouted. She didn’t have hook, knife, or gun. So she drew a weapon with the weapon ring, turning a pen into a rapier blade.
[...]
“Stop,” Maricica said, calm, as her arm was torn down to bone. “You know this only gives me power over you.”
“I don’t,” he started, mouth bloody and partially full. He swallowed and finished, “care.”. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.1 - ↑ “You give up a bit of claim to the person who gave you the glamour, every time you make the change. They could take these items from you in a critical moment.” - excerpt from Vanishing Points 8.7
- ↑ She frowned a little. “Glamour isn’t the province of humans. It must be freely given. It is too fragile to handle otherwise. Too personal to each Faerie.”
[...]
“Who gave it to you?”
“It was fairly taken, after a duel.” - Excerpt from Breach 3.2 - ↑ Wary, she held out a hand, and she accepted the glamour. It was like dust, but heavier, and it felt like cold metal that had just the edges heated by sun. - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.8
- ↑ Glamour – Guilherme & Maricica (fine yellow & coarser dark green dust, respectively) - excerpt from 4.3 Bonus: Packing Up
- ↑ There was almost no friction as the wings slid past them, but dust came away, forming clouds. Verona’s Sight let her see Maricica’s hand move in the dust as she departed, a careful sweep of fingertips and taps at the air, like a piano player might play at his instrument. The dust took shape, becoming something fractal as it expanded outward. [...] When she didn’t say no, she saw the wings sweep over and around her. Dust rolled off her skin, fine enough to sift into and through her clothes. She didn’t cough from it.
“What’s the drawback?”
“You tell me. This is instructional, in part. Then I’ll give you some glamour to take, along with some more practical instruction, so you can try it out on your own. Give it a try for now. Try to stay calm.”
“I’m not sure I’m okay with this practical a lesson right off the bat,” Lucy said.
The dust was cool against Verona’s skin, so fine a sensation that the sensation slipped to a different place from where she was sure her skin and clothes were. Her headache and stomachache were gone. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2 - ↑ She’d used Maricica’s glamour for this and she wondered if she’d be a slightly different sort of fox if she’d used Guilherme’s, or if one was exclusively better, like using Guilherme’s for transforming into sunlight and sunbeams. - excerpt from Shaking Hands 9.4
- ↑ “I don’t think it’s a suitable thing for fighting,” Ms. Lewis said. “You won’t get as much effect out of it there. It could even backfire. Keep in mind that it was and is hair, and it lends itself to similar purpose.” - excerpt from Damages 2.6
- ↑ “Last of my glamour. I could use it for a transformation, but I could also use it for something like a… modified Nettlewisp trap. High Summer Nettlewisp?”
“You do remember what happened when you used Dark Fall glamour to try to ride the sunlight?”
“Got burned. It healed up fast, at least.”
“The same sort of backlash may happen if you use High Summer glamour to work a Dark Fall glamouring.” - excerpt from Playing a Part 15.6 - ↑ “The glass was winter?”
“Yes. And so is the wound. Winter is a court of endings, of fate, of final verdicts. It is less of an illusion, and more a descent into a delusional madness one has to live with for the rest of their lives. If I’d known I wouldn’t have given you that glass.”
“What does that mean, though? Fate? Final verdict?”
“The wound may last, Verona Hayward.”
“Last like…?”
“For life.”
“Is there a cure or-?”
“No. Not in the sense you mean it.” - Excerpt from Playing a Part 15.5 - ↑ 31.0 31.1 “And… I said I’d take power. I thought, taking the hair, well, if a Faerie uses glamour all over the place, where are they going to use it more than in their personal appearance?”
[...]
“Well, your instincts were good. Some Faerie give tokens to their favored humans and practitioners. Little objects, trinkets, scraps of cloth. Objects infused with glamour. These objects carry a kind of charge, an influence. A coin infused with a glamour that it’s lucky. An earring that’s infused with another sort of glamour, granting an ability.”
“And the lock of hair?” I asked.
“Is only a lock of hair, infused with a small glamour to keep it lustrous and pretty. But it’s infused with glamour, nonetheless.” - excerpt from Damages 2.6 - ↑ “A sword sits by the wall. There is still sunlight in it. If you smash it, it will break like glass. Take a piece, grind it up. There will be enough summer glamour in there for a week or two of conservative use. Three or four days of your usual use.” - excerpt from Playing a Part 15.5
- ↑ Verona’s stuff [...] ground up glamour from the flower Guilherme had given her in her right pants pocket with three folded up bits of paper with feathers sticking up out of them, ready to quickly deploy transformations - excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.1
- ↑ Jogging, looking down at the mask, she pressed fingers into painted wood and found it just a bit soft. Still dusted in glamour from her nighttime expedition with Avery, Toadswallow and Gashwad. A rubbing movement of her thumb changed color for a second, before it returned to its older one. - excerpt from Shaking Hands 9.4
- ↑ You throw around this glamour without realizing it’s still out there. It might change forms but it doesn’t just disappear. Like all this I’m hearing about glitter and microplastics? It’s out there. Stuck in the ceiling of that place you were sleeping. In your rooms, in the grass and in the woods. And just like this Brownie trick that Bristow’s about to turn back on you all? It’s way more effective if you take glamour that’s been taught how to work with three little witches and use it against those same witches. - excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.6
- ↑ Toadswallow put some regular old house dust there, and makeup stuff, dirt, paint flecks, and other things Lucy didn’t recognize.
“I prefer layers. A jumbled assortment. Ten very different, capable goblins over one exceptionally strong Fae. Ten tricks, each with a small chance of working, over one with a high but imperfect chance of success.”
Lucy nodded. “This is your extension of the idea that goblins are the eighth court?”
“It’s my best attempt so far. I had to cheat. I borrowed from Guilherme. I acquired glamour from markets that don’t ask questions. I’m not all the way there yet. There are still parts I don’t understand. Maybe you could teach me as much as I can teach you now. Winter glamour is strong in its way. I won’t deny that. But let me teach you my way, before you get out of reach. Watch Bubbleyum. Then we’ll try.”
[...]
“Better. There are some who would take issue, even if we can look to a great many goblin practices and see them doing the same.”
“So you’re not the first?”
“I might be the first to take this direction with this much enthusiasm and focus. In summoning other goblins, we dig deep into the earth, tree rot, or trash, enough we can get to the guts of it. Bluntmunch does it. I’ve done it. I’ve taught you to do it. Mixed earth, if you will, visceral particles. I know many goblin practices that use stolen glamour as a component to cheat their way along, made palatable to goblins by polluting it, mixing it with dirt, lead paint chips, bodily fluids, and other things.”- Excerpt from Crossed with Silver 19.2